Great Blue Heron sunset silhouette - Snell Isle - f/4 ISO 200 1/1600thIt is far, far too rare that I take my Nikon D300 out for personal shooting, even to my own back patio. This past Sunday night, most likely due to the lack of sports on TV, I was sitting on the back patio enjoying the view of Smacks Bayou and the setting sun when I noticed a pelican diving and a great blue heron getting annoyed by that diving. I saw this as an opportunity to continue my slow moving Snell Isle Photo Series.

Great Blue Heron sunset silhouette - Snell Isle - f/4 ISO 200 1/1600thThe conflict with the pelican I will save for another post, while here I will only feature the placid and mostly stoic stance of the great blue heron. I very rarely make silhouette shots, mostly because they are too easy and too common, but recently my interest in them has started to grow. Manual exposure mode is a must of course to produce them. A fast shutter speed causes everything that is not the sun or its immediate surroundings to remain dark, producing a silhouette shot.

Great Blue Heron walking sunset silhouette - Snell Isle Florida - f/5.6 ISO 200 1/1000thGreat blue herons in this area of Florida have little fear of people. They are quite approachable. This means with only my trusty Nikkor AF ED 80-200mm f/2.8D lens, I can get close enough to pretty much get as tight of a shot as I want. They walk very deliberately, never scurrying. I like that.

Great blue heron sunset silhouette - Snell Isle - f/4 ISO 200 1/1600thThe great blue heron featured in these shots did not mind to be photographed at all. In fact, I believe the same great blue heron returned to my back patio last night and stood just a few meters away dead staring at me. It was very strange. This bird is over three feet tall, almost person like. We were unable to clearly communicate to each other what the other wanted. Perhaps the dialogue will continue tonight?